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The UK Polar Network (UKPN) members for the very first time conducted an education and outreach event at the University of Leeds as a part of the Leeds Science festival on the 21st of March, 2016. We conducted an exciting 1 day workshop titled ‘Pole to Pole: Life at the ends of the Earth’ for school students aged 12-15 years.

The workshop was divided into two sessions of 2 hour slots each. Small scale experiments were set-up in order to educate and create awareness on various aspects of climate change in the polar regions such as ocean acidification, sea level rise and the changing albedo. In each of these aspects, the vulnerability of the polar regions to increased emissions of carbon dioxide, industrial pollution, deforestation etc. was stressed on.

Students were first introduced through a continental jigsaw puzzle to the similarities and differences between the Arctic and Antarctic with regard to ocean/wind circulation, temperature, sea ice extent, flora and fauna. This set a good backdrop for the rest of the cool scientific experiments that were to follow!

Once the students were aware of terms such as ice sheets, glaciers, difference between land ice and sea ice, they were run through with a sea level rise experiment. Here they placed ice on a rock (representing land ice) and ice floating in water (representing sea ice) in two separate tubs. Both the tubs were filled with water and ice was melted using a hair dryer. The students were then asked to guess which tub would show a rise in the water level and also the reasons for it. Herein sea level rise was brought into the picture and the impacts of such melting on especially coastal inhabitants discussed. Second part of the experiment was based on thermal expansion using a tube filled with blue liquid placed in a tub with boiling water. The rise of the blue liquid in the tube was used to explain that as water temperature rises, it expands, also contributing to sea level rise.

In sync with the above experiment was the concept of albedo. Students recorded the difference in temperatures between a white and black tile heated by a light bulb. They also measured reflectance of different ‘land types’ – open ocean, snow, sea ice, forest etc. and were asked to place the albedo of these in an increasing or decreasing order. The students were enthused to learn of these differences which led to interesting discussions on the effects of changing albedo in the polar regions on sea level rise and the vicious positive feedback that it sets into motion.

To show one of the major and increasing impacts of climate change, an experiment on ocean acidification was also conducted. Students used vinegar on sea shells to see the corrosive effect of acid on marine organisms. They also tested using a pH indicator and by blowing into beakers containing warm water and ice cold water, the higher solubility of carbon dioxide in the ice cold water and thus the change in acidity. Students were encouraged to seek answers to these observations and come up with a hypothesis to explain this phenomenon. Ocean acidification especially in the polar regions was thus explained and the experiment on sea shells made them realize some of the harmful effects of ocean acidification.

What really intrigued the interest of the students at the end of the workshop was the introduction to heavy polar clothing worn by researchers in the Arctic and Antarctic! Volunteers from among the students were picked up and dressed for the audience to see. This led to several interesting questions on survival in such extreme conditions and the UKPN members shared their memorable experiences of having worked in these harsh conditions with the students.

The aim of the session was thus to educate the students on polar regions and most importantly create an interest in the scientific activities conducted by researchers worldwide at these remote locations. It was thus a day well spent both for the students and UKPN members as the students left more enthused and it served as a great interactive learning experience for the members as well!

Today marks the 100-day countdown to Antarctica Day! We at UK Polar Network will be working with Our Spaces this year to lead the Antarctica Day festivities–you’ll be hearing a lot from us over the next couple of months. As part of this initiative, we invite individuals, classrooms and schools to participate in the festivities by sending us their renditions of Antarctic flags. The flags will then hitch a ride all the way to Antarctica, and we will send proof of travel with a certificate and photos of their journey!

Antarctica Day Flag event with the International Polar Foundation, in Cape Town, South Africa

What’s so important about Antarctica Day and our Flags event? After almost fifty-five years, the Antarctic Treaty continues to shine as a rare beacon of international cooperation. To celebrate this milestone of peace in our civilisation with hope and inspiration for future generations – Antarctica Day is recognised to be December 1st -the day when the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959. As an annual event, Antarctica Day encourages participation from around the world. Our aim is to continue expanding Antarctica Day through our Flags initiative as a globally-accessible platform to share, interpret and cherish the values associated with Antarctica for the benefit of present and future generations.

For researchers travelling to Antarctica

You can help!

Are you heading down to Antarctica or any of the surrounding Antarctic Islands this Winter (November – January)? If so, please let us know! All we ask is for you to help bring down some of these flags, which will be sent to you in pdf or jpg format (however many you are willing to help with!) and photograph them on Antarctica as proof of them having made the journey down south. However you do so is completely up to you–you can be as creative as you want. The photos in this post show various ways that past Antarctic teams have showcased these flags.

Staff at Rothera Research Station celebrate 55 years of the Antarctica Treaty with Antarctic flags

For teachers and classrooms:

We’ve uploaded many school resources, including class plans and PowerPoints on how you, as an educator, can introduce Antarctica and Antarctica Day into your classroom, and have your students create flags to be sent down to Antarctica. We would like to emphasise that submissions to us can only be up to 5 flags per school or classroom–if you would like to submit your flags to us, please contact Julie Berkman <jberkman@ourspaces.org.uk> where she will provide you a DropBox link on reply.

The idea is for your students to design flags for the Antarctic. You can either get all students to design flags, and then chose your ‘top five’ or you could design a couple of flags as a whole class/year group. Digital pictures of the flags are sent to us, and we then print off these picture and send them down to the Antarctic with our scientists and engineers in November and December. A picture of your flags will then be taken within the Antarctic, and the student/classroom will receive a certificate to say where their flag was displayed. There is also a chance that a competition will be run for the best flags to be hung up around the British Antarctic Survey and Scott Polar Museum.

We can provide a large number of resources and lesson ideas. We would also like to maintain a relationship with the school afterwards, either by a visit to the school from a scientist, or an online Q&A session for your students with a scientist. This is an international activity, and so far we have schools from over 20 countries taking part. The UKPN would love to have your school participate in this exciting event.

To help you implement this activity within your classroom, we’ve attached a sample class plan for Antarctica Flags that has been most popular over the last couple of years! If you would like this class plan in another language, please let us know by replying to this email.

A classroom at the Escuela Rural 110, in Soriano, Uruguay, displays their renditions of the Antarctica Flag

This year, our deadline for submission of Antarctica Day flags will be slightly earlier, on the 1st November (exactly 1 month before Antarctica Day!), because we’d like to get your flags to be photographed in Antarctica on the 1st December.

Staff and students on the Gateway Antarctica expedition with Antarctica New Zealand display Antarctica flags on Christmas Day

Lastly, to keep updated and involved in the Antarctica Day festivities, please follow us on Facebook (UKPN and Antarctica Day) and Twitter, where we will be regularly posting your flag submissions and other relevant items counting down the days to December 1st.

For full details, please see the report below. But a massive thank you from me to all the UKPN volunteers who came to the events to help out and inspire the public with their own research, the International Polar Foundation for allowing us to work with them on such a fantastic project and the use of their excellent Polar Puzzles and Class Zero Emission climate change experiments, each of the host science centres, and the British Antarctic Territory for funding this project in the year of Shackletons centenary.

The entire focus was to look at ways early career researchers could engage with the public more successfully, and to give our attendees the skills and confidence to make their science more accessible to the wider audience.

Our first day keymnote was delivered by Dr Sian Henley, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Throughout her astonishingly successful early career in science, Sian has always “gone the extra mile”, and taken part in countless science festivals, school visits and public engagement events. She spoke enthusiastically of the benefits of public engagement, and really set the scene for the two days ahead. Matt Donnelly, of the British Oceanographic Data Centre, followed up with an introduction on communication within science – how can we make our data and programming more accessible within even our own fields? The resounding question left in every ones minds was “Will your data be accessible and useable to repeat the studies in 5 years time? 20 years? 100 years?”. Matts talk was kindly sponsored by the Software Sustainability Institute.

The afternoon session led us into two interactive workshops – one by Dr Jon Copley of the NOC on “Does outreach make you a better researcher?” He firmly argued the point of yes, and gave some excellent examples of dealing with the media. This was followed by Kim Marshall-Brown, of the NOC communications department who discussed the role of science in the printed media, how little science features in the average daily newspaper, and how to liaise with your press team to help them help you.

Day two began with an excellent keynote from David Derbyshire (the keynote session was kindly supported by the NOC communications team). A freelance environmental journalist, David has written for the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail amongst others. His vast experience with the national media led to a great discussion, and was particularly eye opening when considering the readership of national papers when compared to the ones that are more popular in the field of science. David was followed by a presentation from Ella Darlington and Laura Hobbs (Loughborough University and Scottish Association for Marine Science respectively) who presented on their own experiences of social media, blogging from the field, school outreach, and making podcasts.

Vijay Shah, of several Arctic expeditions, gave an excellent “crash course” in Polar film and photography – something that nearly all of the attendees had very little experience in! Key tips, such as the best time of day to take a photo, and getting the perfect person:landscape:sky ratio were discussed, along with how to make your films the sort that people just can’t pause! Our two interactive afternoon sessions featured Liz Pasteur from the International Polar Foundation with their amazing interactive maps and hands on experiments! Participants had the chance to reconstruct Antarctica (something most found surprisingly/embarrassingly difficult!), and conduct the experiments on albedo, the contribution of sea ice and glacial melt on sea level rise, and thermal expansion of water. The final session was a great overview of science communication from Helen Czerski (University College London) – covering important but often not considered topics such as communicating error, and simplifying without dumbing down.

The workshop was a great success, and we’ve had some really positive comments from participants. There was a total of 40 attendees, made up of a variety of early career levels from undergraduate to early post doc, and from a range of institutes including Bristol University, University of Southampton, Reading University, and Queen Mary London, amongst others.

A big thanks to all of our supporters, including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, the British Antarctic Territory, Loughborough University and the Software Sustainability Institute. Thank you to all of the facilities, reception, estates and catering staff at the NOC, Southampton, who put in a tremendous amount of effort to help the workshop run smoothly. Finally, a huge thanks to all of our speakers who gave their time and effort to contribute to the workshop. With special thanks to Kim Marshall-Brown at the NOC, who not only provided a session of her own, but assisted us with both time and finances extensively to help with finding and booking other aspects of the programme.

Thanks to all those that attended, and we look forward to seeing you at future UKPN events!

The workshop is an interdisciplinary meeting of early career researchers, focussing on all aspects of marine sciences in the polar regions. It will be hosted at the University of East Anglia in Norwich on the 29th – 31st July 2014.

Workshop Themes

The theme of the workshop is polar marine science, including physical, biological and chemical sciences of the oceans, as well as links with atmospheric and cryospheric processes.

The workshop is funded by the NERC iSTAR project, itself an interdisciplinary project researching the impact of ocean heat transport on the melting of Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica.

Information

This workshop aims to bring together 40 – 45 early career polar researchers to present their science and gain knowledge of cutting edge research, funding opportunities and career pathways. We invite talks or posters in any field of polar marine science and also welcome research in progress from early career research students – it will be a great opportunity to present in front of peers and get feedback on your research from a wide range of specialisms.

There will be excellent opportunities to build networks with fellow early career scientists as well as senior scientists, who will share their perspectives in a series of panel debates and workshops. Our keynote speaker on Tuesday night is polar explorer Antony Jinman, who also specialises in educational outreach whilst on expedition! Polar technologies such as Autosub, UAVs, AUVs, seal tagging and moorings will be introduced by experts in the field and provide the opportunity to learn more about how they could be used in your research.

We are pleased to announce the call for participation in the UKPN ‘Software and Polar Science Workshop’. If you are a Polar Scientist who at any point during your research will use computer software, then this workshop will be great for you! The one day event will run on the 17th September 2013 at the Scott Polar Research Institute (directly preceding the Arctic Science Conference.

With our workshop funders, the Software Sustainability Institute, we aim to provide useful guidance and practical assistance for Polar researchers who are in need of inspiration when it comes to dealing with plotting, analysing or sharing data.

Specifically we aim to:

Help you choose the right software for your project

Identify how to develop maintainable software

Give you ideas for visualisation of data

Show you available means of sharing your data so that it is useful for all!

At present confirmed speakers include the Software Sustainability Institute; and Dr. Jon Blower from the University of Reading. Further information, including the draft programme is available on the conference website, and under the Education and Outreach menu tab. Speakers and sessions will be added as they are confirmed.

There is no charge for the UKPN workshop and a lunch will be provided on the day. Some funding is available to support travel to and accommodation in Cambridge. All participants are expected to give a short (~2 minute) presentation on a piece of software that they use – if everyone donates one piece of useful knowledge from their experience, then each participant will walk away with lots of great ideas!

Once again, the UKPN is offering you a fantastic opportunity to gain useful skills, whilst also meeting up with some of your fellow Polar Scientists. If you would like to take part, please complete the registration form. Registration will be open until 31 July 2013.

The World Weather Research Program (WWRP) Polar Prediction Project (PPP) is a ten year initiative aiming to promote cooperative international research into polar weather prediction at hourly to seasonal timescales. As part of this project plans are being made for a Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) in 2017-2018, this will involve an intensive observation and modelling effort to improve polar prediction.

Ella Darlington and Jonny Day attended this meeting representing APECS, who are being consulted on project matters related to outreach and education. The meeting was mainly concerned with finalising the project implementation plan. During the discussion on how early career scientists could become more involved in and contribute to the PPP, the following ideas were discussed:

Invite early career scientists to PPP events (not just workshops; but also steering groups, etc.).

Run mentoring sessions at SG meetings and PPP workshops.

Involve early career scientists in informal social settings such as icebreakers where they are encouraged to meet and talk with senior scientists.

Run skills training workshops to ensure that early career scientists are familiar with tools as well as operational in-house systems (e.g., models, and diagnosis and verification systems) and can more readily run models or analyse operational centre data. (Existing examples include twice yearly WRF workshops and verification workshops run by JWGFVR.).

Run summer schools.

It was agreed to:

Invite local APECS representative(s) to take part in the next PPP-SG meeting (tentatively Boulder, Colorado, USA in October 2013).

Run a mentoring session in association with the PPP-SG meeting.

In addition Jonny agreed to sit on the project steering group and YOPP planning committee to liaise with both the PPP steering group and APECS concerning the PPP education and outreach plan and its implementation.